I knew I shouldn'ta.....

I had an English teacher in HS that simply refused to watch the news... or read the newspaper... "It's all so very depressing... there's nothing but bad, evil." I flipped on the CNN dot com thingy this morning - and true: tornadoes in Eastern Iowa.. Bear kills 6 yr old child in Tennessee... Moussaoui tells the court "no regrets" over 9/11... Worshippers in Egypt attacked by knife-wielding men... Eleven kidnapped/killed in Iraq...

Help me please... I needa feel good... Actually, thankfully, the feel good preceded me reading the (bad) news... A very influential person in our town has passed. No, that is certainly not a feel good for him to have passed --- but the reflection of his life's work is very definitely a feel good. By influential - everyone's first thought is money... No.. not money... Influential in his service to youth..

Manley was my Elementary PE teacher when we first moved to town a long, long time ago.. He was fun... serious in his work... and a very decent motivator... I was fortunate to hang around town long enough for my stepson to go the same Elementary School where Manley was by then the Principal...

I mainly knew the middle third of his life... teacher.. principal... the fact that he didn't 'take summers off' - no, he was the director of a kid's camp... officiated sports... The final third of his life he started his own day camp and operated that for many years... Rich by association with youth I bet he'd say..

Last night I learned the first 3rd of his life.. His father was tragically killed in an auto crash when Manley was 7... His mother, due to poor health, was forced to become institutionalized when he was 11... His sisters had families to go live with.. Manley pretty much raised himself from that point on..

It alarms me that kids today have two loving, caring parents and can't get the hell outta bed to do for themselves - or even worse - simply don't appreciate what they have in their lives....

Manley, at 11 would sometimes come up short financially for his groceries.. and sure, he got hungry.. He'd walk to the diner in the small town - and it was there a he'd grab a meal and "intend to pay you back next week."... The town assisted in raising him... The diner incident happened with greater frequency - then World War II happened - Manley went overseas...

With every check he received from the Government, he'd mail half back to the diner in his hometown, and the other half to be split amongst his sisters.. This too was repeated until the owners of the diner finally proclaimed "STOP... you've more than paid us off...THANK YOU!!!"...

With all the yuck in society - the Manleys of the world never make CNN, or headline the local news... Should. Feels good to remember.